Video 5:02
Orchestral milestone

The Canberra suburb of Downer is turning 50. Stateline looks back at how the area has changed from the home of the CSIRO to housing.

Transcript

CATHERINE GARRETT: Well, the suburb of Downer is about to turn 50. Originally, it was the home of the CSIRO. The community centre and the former shops were all part of that organisation.

Where there are now houses there used to be an agricultural research facility, which amongst other crops grew opium poppies for medical research. Downer residents are addicted to their suburb for lots of reasons

JOHN CUMMINS, DOWNER RESIDENT: When we first came here, it was a bare, bare street. Few houses, some of them not occupied. Not a lot of people. But when the people did start to come we were so pleased because we had three children at the time, three young children. And of course there are lots of other people in the street that had children as well. As soon as we got there, we knew we liked the place because we had a home.

CATHERINE GARRETT: You obviously love the suburb and this house because you're still here.

JOHN CUMMINS: Yes, exactly right.

It's a little three bedroom, very small bedroom. We had three children, so it was a bit of a squeezed combination area.

But then as children do they grow up, they move on and we're left with two people with a house where we used to have five. And we were quite happy to stay where we were.

CATHERINE GARRETT: Well before Downer was gazetted on April 7th, 1960, it was a site ear marked for use by the then Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

Later the CSIRO.

Today's Swindon Street, Downer, a very different street scape from the 1940s when the roads served as the entrance to the facility. Surrounding fields grew crops to test for soil fertility and plant nutrition, right through to analysis of drug plants, including opium poppy.

DOUG MEYER, CSIRO WORKER: We had a magnificent field of opium poppy, at Downer. We had varieties of opium poppy from all over the world. Hundreds of varieties.

And one interesting thing was that the more colourful the poppy was, the more morphine was present. So I joined the CSIRO in 1933. And it was very interesting. But I learnt very early that funds for CSIRO were in short supply, as the secretary he had, he was in charge of stationary and stuff.

And we had to supply the stub of an old pencil before we got the new one!

I'm not sure that applied to the senior members, but it certainly did to the younger ones!

CATHERINE GARRETT: We're here at the Downer Oval now. Tell us what this land scape would have looked like when CSIRO was here in the 40s.

DENYS GARDEN, DOWNER HISTORIAN: Well, it would have looked quite different from the way it is now. Because it was set up for experimental work, and so therefore a lot of areas would have been ploughed up and experiments sewn. So we see now these beautiful trees and grass as an oval but then it would have been very, very different. Trees were planted here in 1943 by the chief of division of plant industry at that time, Dr Dickson. He was adamant that he wanted to have trees around this area and these are were planted as wind breaks for the buildings belonging to CSIRO.

DENYS GARDEN: That's correct. This area already had the central core of buildings that belonged to CSIRO. And the trees and this central area. So that was retained. That really directed the shape of the suburb.

CATHERINE GARRETT: A suburb full of stories and lives, spanning the decades.

DOUG MEYER: I like the sort of rural area here when the trees grew up and that sort of thing. And it being so quiet. It's not a through thorough fare and that was one of the things that endeared it to us.

JOHN CUMMINS: Even when the new people came in we made friends pretty quickly because we had set the pattern that this is a friendly street.

CATHERINE GARRETT: And if you have a story in or about your suburb, get in touch. We'd love to hear from you.